Further to its normal telephone function, a mobile phone may be used for exchanging information with a contactless device by using a contactless communication protocol. This permits exchange of information between the contactless device and elements located within the mobile phone. Plenty of applications are thus possible, such as mobile ticketing in public transport (i.e. the mobile phone acts as a ticket) or mobile payment (i.e. the mobile phone acts as a debit/credit payment card).
Near Field Communication (NFC) is a short range high frequency wireless communication technology, which enables such exchanges of data between contactless devices over a short distance, for example, 10 centimeters. NFC is an open platform technology standardized in International Organization for Standardization/International Electrotechnical Commission (ISO/IEC) 18092 and ISO/IEC 21481, but incorporates a variety of pre-existing standards including ISO/IEC 14443 protocol type A and type B.
NFC device approaches generally comprise a device host, a NFC controller, and one or more secure elements. The standard way to communicate between the device host and the secure element is to use the same link, for example, a Single Wire Protocol (SWP) link, as the one used for contactless communication. However, such a link is limited in term of bandwidth. And, for some applications, a larger bandwidth may be used to allow communication between the device host and the secure element, for example, in case of transfer of data related to a fingerprint for identification of the user.